Key details withheld from audit of NC Medicaid

Strategic edits made to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services response to an audit critical of the state's Medicaid program raises questions about whether key facts were withheld to make the program appear worse off than it really is.

Gov. Pat McCrory has used the January audit to make a case for privatizing the state's $13-billion Medicaid system.

The audit edits made by then-Medicaid Director Carol Steckel were first reported Tuesday by the non-profit website North Carolina Health News.

Steckel resigned this month to take a job with a for-profit managed-care company that may bid on running the state's Medicaid system.

DHHS Secretary Aldona Wos told legislators Tuesday she stands by the audit response. Wos says she sees no conflict of interest with Steckel's new job.